Filmmaker Zach Cregger is a fan of the \u201cResident Evil\u201d video game franchise, but not so much of the previous seven films\u2026and it shows. Watching this new masterpiece of horror is, at times, like chilling while watching a friend play the third-person perspective shooter. After a memorable performance as a drug addicted burglar in Cregger\u2019s \u201cWeapons,\u201d actor Austin Abrams returns in a leading role as a hapless medical courier tasked with delivering a time-sensitive package to Raccoon City General Hospital. Of course, along the way he\u2019ll encounter scores of infected zombies, including the \u201cHuman Centipede\u201d-pinwheel inspired by the game\u2019s bio-organic weapon Nyx. Blood-soaked fun from start to finish.<\/p>\n
The snow-covered setting provides the perfect backdrop for the vibrant red splatter that serves as the primary color in the RE palette. Cregger assaults the audience with several jump scares, beginning with a woman who walks out in front of our protagonist\u2019s car on a rural road in the middle of the night. That would be Bryan (Abrams), who is on the phone when he hits the woman crossing the road. He puts the still-alive (debatable) catatonic lady, who resembles a bloody, bendable action figure, in his car since he\u2019s headed to Raccoon City\u2019s hospital to deliver an organ for a transplant. Talk about a tense ride.<\/p>\n
Several moments in the film resemble \u201cWeapons,\u201d as zombies run toward Bryan, who, once he gets hold of a weapon, says his situation feels like playing a video game\u2014he learned to use weapons by playing video games.<\/p>\n
Along the way, we meet more memorable characters, including a fun Paul Walter Hauser as Carl, who crosses paths with Bryan, becomes his passenger, and immediately delivers comic relief. There\u2019s also badass Kali Reis as a female John Wick, who\u2019s proficient with a firearm. \u201cResident Evil\u201d was written by Cregger and Shay Hatten; the screenwriter is best known for \u201cJohn Wick: Chapter 3 \u2013 Parabellum\u201d and \u201cJohn Wick: Chapter 4.\u201d<\/p>\n
This movie has lots of tentacles. I immediately got John Carpenter\u2019s \u201cThe Thing\u201d vibes (especially in a scene that involves a dog) and a few \u201cInvasion of the Body Snatchers\u201d feels. The monsters are a blast, including a chunky, acid-puking creature that resembles Bill Paxton\u2019s turd-monster Chet in \u201cWeird Science\u201d and a \u201cThe Human Centipede\u201d pinwheel that comes at you like a juggernaut with terrible braking distance.<\/p>\n
Composers Hays Holladay and Ryan Holladay permeate the story with dark, metallic synths in the same vein as their last Cregger collaboration (\u201cWeapons\u201d), building upon the dread-heavy atmosphere and providing one of my favorite film scores of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cResident Evil\u201d culminates in a boss-battle-type finale as Bryan must make his way up a decimated Raccoon City hospital, each floor resembling a new level in a video game, to deliver his package. Cregger\u2019s final shot will go down as one of horror\u2019s most iconic scenes.<\/p>\n
(4 stars)<\/p>\n
Now showing in theaters<\/p>\n
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/09\/19\/resident-evil-review-blood-soaked-fun-from-start-to-finish\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=791238&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/09\/19\/resident-evil-review-blood-soaked-fun-from-start-to-finish\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report September 19, 2026 Filmmaker Zach Cregger is a fan of the \u201cResident…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,7986],"class_list":["post-441329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}